Spellbinders

Spellbinders
Cover to Spellbinders #1 Picture from left to right Mason, Renata, Paul, Kim, Foley, Mink and Liza Beth Art by Mike Perkins
Publication information
Publisher	Marvel Next (Marvel Comics)
Schedule	Monthly
Format	Limited series
Publication date	May - October 2005
Number of issues	6
Main character(s)	Kim Vesco
Creative team
Creator(s)	Mike Carey Mike Perkins.

Spellbinders is a comic book published by Marvel Comics, as part of that company's Marvel Next imprint. It was a six-issue limited series written by Mike Carey with art by Mike Perkins. It is part of the Marvel Universe, but the story takes no advantage of the fact.

Spellbinders is set around John Hawthorne High School, a fictional high school in Salem, Massachusetts, where magic is accepted as a fact. There are rivalries between magical students ('wicks') and non-magical students ('blanks'), and between the various covens.

The story centers around Kim Vesco, a girl from Chicago who has strange dreams and an interest in sculpture.

In the fist issue Kim and her family move to Salem. On her first day she meets Chad Barrow, her neighbor, who tells her she'll be fine in school, provided she isn't a nerd or a 'wick'. Her first day at school is rough, she is attacked by an air elemental, but is saved by two wicks, Mink and Liza Beth. Later at home, she is attacked by a wall.

After the wall attacks her Kim discovers that she can talk to ghosts when she 'spirit walks' and accidentally summons a horde of ghosts. One of the ghosts tells her that she has to wield the Salem covens into a single unit, a 'seven.' Another ghost warns her 'not to go to the pillar'.

At a science class, the bunsen burners explode and the lab catches fire. Kim saves herself by making a mora poultice which smothers the fire.

Chad asks her to go to a party. When he asks her about her parents, she mentions that she is adopted. The Salem witches reason that if Kim is adopted, she may be one of them. On the night of the party, they secretly guard her against all forms of magical attack.

At the party, the lights go out and someone attacks Kim with a knife. Realising they have not protected Kim against physical attack, the Salem witches rush to the party just in time to see Kim running from a wolf-monster. Renata, a shapeshifter, changes into another wolf creature, and the two fight. But when the thing sees the rest of the witches arriving, it turns into a flock of birds and flies away.